Calendar mechanism



United States Patent CALENDAR MECHANISM Robert L. Boyles, Wayland, Mass., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application September 2, 1955, Serial No. 532,291

12 Claims. (Cl. 58-5) This invention relates to calendar mechanisms of the automatic type and primarily to that type of automatic calendar mechanism adapted to be driven by a clock mechanism.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide an automatic calendar mechanism which is of simple construction and contains fewer parts than is normally found in a device of this type.

Another object is to provide an improved setting means for the calendar mechanism by which the relationship between the indicators may easily be changed at the end of any month that does not have 31 days.

Another object of this invention is to provide an automatic calendar mechanism which will automatically indicate the correct day and date and which will automatically change the indications each day during the early morning hours.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty which characterize my invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming part of this specification.

In carrying out the objects of my invention in one form thereof a calendar clock mechanism is provided which includes a clock mechanism and a calendar mechanism. The calendar mechanism includes indicators for the day and date and has a first drive assembly which changes the relationship between the indicators and moves them simultaneously and a second drive assembly adapted to be driven by the clock mechanism and in turn driving the first assembly. The first drive assembly consists of suitable gearing to drive the day and date indicators simultaneously or to drive them so as to change their relative positions. The second drive assembly is constructed of gearing so that it will be driven by the clock mechanism and will move the first driving means a certain interval each 24 hours.

For a better understanding of my invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation view, partly broken away, of a calendar clock mechanism incorporating one embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the calendar mechanism.

Fig. 3 is a top view showing the calendar clock mechanism.

Fig. 4 is a view of another form of a portion of the mechanism shown in Fig. 2.

As shown most clearly in Fig. 3 the calendar clock mechanism consists of a clock mechanism 1 and a calendar mechanism 2 that may be driven by a synchronous type clock motor well known to those skilled in the art. The clock mechanism 1 can be of any Well-known type and will not be discussed further except as to how it coacts with and drives the calendar mechanism 2.

The calendar mechanism 2 is mounted on a front plate 3. A date ring or member 4 is mounted on the front plate 3 by means of support studs 5. One of these support studs 5 is attached by a screw 5a to the front plate 3 so that this stud 5 can be removed to permit assembly of the date ring 4. Each stud 5 has a groove 5' formed in it, and the date ring 4 fits into the grooves 5. This date ring 4 carries thirty one numerical indicia 6 from one through thirty one corresponding to the days of the month and is formed to provide gear teeth 7 on the inner edge thereof.

A day dial or member 8 is mounted to turn freely on a main shaft 9 of the clock mechanism 1 and is concentric with the date ring 4. The day dial 8 carries seven indicia 10 which correspond to the days of the week and is formed to provide gear teeth 11 on its outer periphery.

While in the preferred embodiment of my invention I use a moulded date ring 4 and a moulded day dial 8, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that these pieces may be die cast, built from machined parts or formed in any other suitable manner without changing their function.

For the purposes of clarity, the main dial of the clock mechanism 1 is not shown on the drawings, however, the inner window 12 and outer window 13 formed in the main dial of the clock are shown in dotted outline to show their function and location. The outer Window 13 is positioned so that it will reveal the correct numerical indicia 6 carried by the date ring 4. In a like manner, the inner window 12 is positioned so that it will reveal the correct indicia 10 carried by the day dial 8.

In order to provide positive indexing of the day and date, the hub of the day dial 8 is formed to provide a seven lobe cam 14. A support plate 15 is attached to the front plate 3 and supports a detent or leaf spring 16 arranged to engage the cam 14. It will be understood that the spring 16 may be mounted in any other suitable portion of the structure besides front plate 3 as long as stationary mounting means is provided for spring 16. When the day dial 8 is rotated, the spring 16 begins to ride outward on one lobe of the cam 14 and when it reaches its extreme outward position, it will then snap back to the innermost point of the next lobe. If the day dial 8 is driven siightly beyond the index position and then-released, the action of the spring 16 on the cam 14 will return the day dial 8 to the proper position to center the day indicia 10 in the window 12.

In order to drive the calendar mechanism, a 24-hour gear 17 is mounted on a shaft 18 which in turn is mounted on the front plate 3. This gear 17 is driven by the gear train of the clock mechanism 1 and makes one revolution every 24 hours. Mounted loosely on the same shaft 18 is a sector gear 19. This sector gear 19 is flexibly connected to the 24-hour gear 17 by means of a spring 20. The 24-hour gear 17 is cut as shown at 21 and a tab 22 containing a hole 23 is bent away from the plane of the 24-hour gear 17. A similar tab 24 containing a hole 25 is formed on and bent away from the normal plane of the sector gear 19. The spring 20 consists of a first arm 26, a circular body 27 and a second arm 28. The body 27 of the spring 2t? is positioned about the shaft 18 and the first arm 26 is passed through the hole 23 in the tab 22 formed on the 24-hour gear 17 and the second arm 28 is passed through the hole 25 in the tab 24 on the sector gear 19 so as to form a flexible driving connection between the 24-hour gear 17 and the sector gear 19. Sector gear 19 is composed of a hub 29 and cantiliver arm 30 having teeth 31 formed on its outer end and on the side remote from the hub 29. This construction allows the arm 30 to have limited radial movement.

An alternative, and presently preferred, method for driving a sector gear 19' is shown in Fig. 4. The 24-hour.

gear 17' is cut as shown at 21' and a dog or tab 22' is bent away from the plane of the 24-hour gear 17'. The dog 22 is of such a length that it will engage the sector gear 19 at point 32 and thereby drive sector gear 19. in"

answer this embodiment sector gear 19' is constructed similar to sector gear 19 but does not have the tab 24 formed thereon, however, it is composed of a hub and a cantilever arm having teeth 31' formed on its outer end and on the side remote from hub 29. This construction likewise allows arm 3th to have limited radial movement.

In the illustrated embodiment of my invention, I prefer to have the day dial and date ring arranged with the driving means situated therebetween for the purposes of simplicity and economy. It Will be understood that the shapes of the day dial and date ring be changed Without changing their function so long as their relationship to the driving means is not changed.

Topping relief for he sector gear 19 is provided by the spring 29 which in addition to providing a flexible driving connection between the sector E9 and the 24-hour gear 17 also spring loads the sector i9. Whenever two gears are arranged to intermittently engage one another some provision must be made to prevent the tops of the gear teeth from jamming together and preventing proper meshing of the teeth. This compensation is known as topping relief. When the sector gear 19 engages the first pinion 33, it may not mesh properly with the pinion but the tops of the teeth of the two gears might engage. Due to the sector gear 19 being spring loaded by the spring 20, it will be forced back upon such engagement until it will properly mesh with the pinion 33. As shown in 2, further topping relief for the sector M is provided by modifying the first two teeth 3d of the sector gear if that engage pinion 33. These teeth are reduced in height and rounded on the tips. it will be understood that the topping relief might be obtained by modifying only the first tooth or more than two teeth that first engage pinion 33.

In the alternative method of driving the sector gear 19 topping relief is provided for said gear 19 by its design which allows limited radial movement of the can tilever arm 34) thereby permitting the teeth to move toward the hub and prevent jamming when topping occurs. When the sector gear 19 engages the first pinion 33, it may not mesh properly with the pinion but the tops of the teeth of the two gears might engage. The design of the sector gear 19 which gives limited radial movement to the cantilever arm 3t? permits this condition to clear itself and allows the teeth to slip into mesh. As in the form shown in Fig. 2, additional topping relief is provided by having the first two teeth 34' of the sector gear 19' reduced in height and rounded on the tips.

The driving and setting of the date ring and day dial 8 is accomplished by means of a gear and pinion assembly. The first pinion 33 is mounted so that it will be engaged and driven by the sector gear 19 for a certain period each 24 hours. This first pinion 33 in turn will drive the gear and the second pinion 36 through the set shaft 37. The second pinion 36 is arranged to engage the gear teeth 7 on the date ring 4 and thereby drive the date ring revolution every 24 hours. At the same time, the gear 35 engages the gear teeth 11 of the day dial 8 thereby driving the day dial revolution every 24 hours. The proper angular motion of the gear and pinion assembly is provided by choosing the correct gear ratio between sector 19 and pinion 33.

Due to the construction of the sector gear 19, the number of teeth on said gear 1% that engage and drive the first pinion 33 will vary from time to time. The relative angular positions of the sector gear 19 and pinion 33, when they come into mesh, might vary at different times so that the number of teeth 31 on the sector gear 19 that actually meshes with pinion 33 will not always be the same. This is compensated for by the spring 16 coacting with the cam 14 to bring the indicators into proper registry when the sector gear 19 disengages.

In order to move the date ring 4 and day dial 8 simultaneously or to manually change the relative setting of the date ring 4 and the day dial 8, the set shaft 37 is employed. The gear 35 is frictionally connected to the set shaft 37 by means of a resilient friction washer 38 so that when the set shaft 37 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, as would be seen from a back view of the mechanism, the gear 35 will rotate with the set shaft 3?; but when the set shaft 37 is rotated in a clockwise direction, as seen from back view, the resilient friction washer 33 will slip and gear 35 will not rotate. The gear 35 will tend to rotate upon clockwise rotation of the set shaft 3'7 and thereby tend to rotate the day zal 8, but this rotation is prevented by a function of the cam 14 and spring 16 which is entirely separate from the function they perform which has previously been described. It may be seen in Fig. 1 that the spring l6 allows counterclockwise rotation of the day dial 3. This spri iowever, wiil engage one lobe of the cam 14 upon y attempt to rotate the day dial 8 in a clockwise direction and thereby prevent any such rotation. During manual resetting, the tendency of the day dial 8 causes the spring in to be forced against one of the seven lobes of the cam 14- and thereby prevent any rotation of the day dial 8. This also prevents the gear 35 from rotating and causes the resilient friction washer 35. to slip. The clockwise rotation of the shaf 37 will cause the second pinion 36 to rotate and thereby cause the date ring 4 to rotate while the day dial S remains stationary and consequently the relation between. the day dial 3 and the date ring will be changed.

if the manual resetting of the calendar mechanism 2 is attempted while the sector gear 1? is in mesh with the pinion 33, the arm 31 has enough radial flexibility to permit ratcheting without damage. The sector gear 19' is loosely mounted on the shaft 18 so that if an attempt is made to advance the calendar mechanism 2 while the gear 19 is in mesh with pinion 33 the gear 19 can revolve freely and run out of mesh. in the alternative embodiment of my invention, the spring 20 is flexible enough and has sufficient freedom of movement to aliow the sector gear 19 to be driven out of mesh in either direction upon manual rotation of the set shaft 37.

To aid in better understanding of my invention, I have set forth the operation in detail below.

During normal operation, the clock mechanism ll will drive the 24-hour gear 17 at the rate of one revolution every 24 hours. in the preferred embodiment of my invention, dog 22 forms a driving connection between. sector gear 19 and 24-hour gear 17. in the alternative form, the spring 29 connected between the 24-hour gear 17 and sector gear 19 will cause sector gear 19 to rotate with the 24-hour gear.

The mechanism is constructed so that the rotation of the sector gear 19 will cause it to engage the first pinion 33 sometime during the early morning hours. At the time the sector gear 3W engages the first pinion 33, it will cause the first pinion 33 to rotate and in turn cause the set shaft 37, gear 35 and second pinion as to rotate. The sector gear 19 is of such a length that it will cause the first pinion 33 to rotate through an angle that will be approximately sufficient to advance the date ring 4 and day dial 3 one step each. The positive indexing action of the detent its on the day dial 8 will correct for over or undershooting when the sector gear 19 dis-- engages. Thus, it will be seen that once every 24 hours, the date ring 4- will make revolution while the day dial 8 will make revolution and the indicia will be positively positioned in the outer window 13 and inner Window 12 respectivei The rotation of the first pinion 33 causes the gear 35 to rotate through an angle such that it will drive the day dial 3 by means of gear teeth 11 just revolution. In a like manner, the rotation of the first pinion 35 causes the second pinion 36 to rotate through an angle such that it will drive the date ring 4 by means of gear teeth 7 just revolution. in this manner, the calendar mechanism will be automatically advanced each 24 hours so that it will always indicate the correct day and date.

In the mechanism described herein, this change of the calendar indicators takes approximately 2 /2 to 3 hours. However, the mechanism is arranged so that this change takes place in the early morning hours and thereby is seldom noticed.

The calendar mechanism 2 must be reset manually at the end of any month that does not have 31 days. This resetting is accomplished by means of the set shaft 37, gear 35, second pinion 36 and resilient friction washer 3S. Rotation of the set shaft in a counterclockwise direction, as seen from a back view of the mechanism, will cause gear 35 and the second pinion 36 to drive the day dial 8 and the date ring 4 respectively in the same manner as the sector gear 19 causes the rotation, and both day and date are advanced simultaneously. However, when the set shaft 37 is rotated in a clockwise direction, as seen from a back view, only the date dial 4 will be rotated by the second pinion and the day dial 8 will be prevented from rotating by the aforementioned engagement of the spring 16 with the cam 14. In this manner, the relationship between the date ring 4 and the day dial 8 may be changed when necessary.

The complete operation to be performed to manually reset the calendar mechanism is best described by means of an example. If a 30-day month ends on say Sunday, the calendar mechanism will indicate the next day as being Monday, the 31st. When the set shaft 37 is rotated clockwise, as described above, the date will change to 30 and so on down to 1 which is the correct date. Another method may be used. The set shaft 37 may be rotated clockwise until the date indicated is Monday, the th, or actually rotating the date ring backward 6 steps or revolution while the day ring remains stationary. If the rotation of the set shaft 37 is then reversed so that the date ring is advanced 7 steps or revolution and the day dial is advanced one full revolution, the day and date indicated will be Monday the 1st, which is correct. It will be understood that the date ring must be turned backward four steps when changing from February to March unless .it is leap year in which case the date ring would have to be reversed five steps before it is advanced again.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of my invention, I do not desire my invention to be limited to the particular construction shown and described, and I intend by the appended claims to cover all modifications within the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A calendar clock mechanism comprising a date ring member and a day dial member, said date ring member being formed to include a plurality of teeth on the inner annular surface thereof, said day dial member being formed to provide a plurality of teeth on the outer periphery thereof, said inner and outer surfaces being radially spaced, means extending into the space between said members for driving said members, said means including a first gear and a second gear, said first gear engaging said dial member and said second gear engaging said ring member whereby said members are simultaneously rotated to change the indications given thereby.

2. A calendar clock mechanism comprising a date ring member and a day dial member, said date ring member being formed to include a plurality of teeth on the inner annular surface thereof, said dial member being formed to provide a plurality of teeth on the outer periphery thereof, said inner and outer surfaces being radially spaced, means extending into the space between said members for driving said members, said means including a shaft, and a first gear and a second gear mounted on said shaft, said first gear engaging said dial member and said second gear engaging said ring member whereby said members are simultaneously rotated to change the indications given thereby.

3. A calendar clock mechanism comprising a date ring member and a day dial member, said date ring member being formed to include a plurality of teeth thereon, said dial member being formed to provide a plurality of teeth thereon, means for driving said members, said means including a shaft having mounted thereon a first gear engaging said dial member, a second gear engaging said ring member, and a third gear, and a sector gear adapted to be driven by a clock mechanism and engaging said third gear at twenty-four hour intervals for causing simultaneous rotation of said members.

4. The combination recited in claim 3 which includes a twenty-four hour gear adapted to be driven by the clock mechanism, and a spring connected to said twenty-four hour gear and said sector gear for providing a flexible connection between said twenty-four hour gear and said sector gear.

5. The combination recited in claim 2 wherein said first gear is frictionally mounted on said shaft, said second gear is rigidly mounted on said shaft whereby relative rotation of said members may be secured to change the relative indications given thereby.

6. The combination recited in claim 1 wherein a cam is formed on the hub of said day dial member and a stationary detent is arranged to engage said cam to limit rotation of said dial member to one direction.

7. The combination recited in claim 1 wherein a cam is formed on the hub of said day dial member and a stationary leaf spring is arranged to engage said cam for limiting rotation of said dial member in one direction.

8. The combination recited in claim 1 wherein a cam is formed on the hub of said day dial member, said cam including a plurality of flat cam surfaces, and a stationary detent arranged to engage said flat earn surfaces whereby said detcnt positively indexes said dial member to a predetermined position.

9. The combination recited in claim 1 wherein a cam is formed on the hub of said day dial member, said cam including a plurality of flat cam surfaces, and a leaf spring arranged to engage said flat cam surfaces whereby said leaf spring positively indexes said dial member to a predetermined position.

10. The combination recited in claim 1 which includes a sector gear, driving means for said sector gear, said sector gear comprising a cantilever arm and a hub, said arm including teeth near the free end thereof on the side remote from said hub, a pinion engageable by said teeth, said arm affording movement of said free end thereof toward said hub for providing topping relief.

11. The combination recited in claim 1 which includes a twenty-four hour gear adapted to be driven by the clock mechanism; said twenty-four hour gear including a dog, a sector gear comprising a cantilever arm and a hub, said arm .including teeth near the free end thereof on the side remote from said hub, a pinion engageable by said teeth, said arm affording movement of the said free end thereof toward said hub for providing topping relief.

12. The combination recited in claim 1 which includes a twenty-four hour gear adapted to be driven by the clock mechanism; said twenty-four hour gear including a dog, a sector gear comprising a cantilever arm and a hub, said arm includnig teeth near the free end thereof on the side remote from said hub, a pinion engageable by said teeth, said arm affording movement of the said free end thereof toward said hub for providing topping relief, at least the first tooth engaging said pinion being shortened and rounded to provide further topping relief.

No references cited. 

